


Conviction

by boleyn13



Series: Act of desperation [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Betrayal, Civil War Elements, Consequences, Dark Loki, Gen, Loss of Trust, Origin Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-07 10:58:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10358919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boleyn13/pseuds/boleyn13
Summary: After having freed Loki from his prison Tony wants the god to help him to take revenge on the Avengers. Unfortunately Loki doesn't play by anybody's rules and wants to know just how far Tony is willing to go





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody,
> 
> This is a second part to my oneshot "Desperate deed" and shows what happens between Loki and Tony the second after they left Loki's cell.
> 
> No, there is not going to be more. I just felt like I needed a second part, because the first one wasn't dark enough. Not exactly what I wanted to convey.
> 
> No frostiron to be found here, sorry ;)
> 
> Have fun anyway, it's dark and twisted... and murderous

A vortex made of various colours. Different in their brightness and intensity, flooding all of Tony’s senses. Even closing his eyes didn’t help, Tony’s head was instantly swimming and he felt the urge to throw up. His body was torn into several different directions at once and then it all stopped.

There was hard ground beneath his feet and Tony wasn’t on his knees anymore. A second ago there had been too many colours, now there weren’t any left. White. Ice. Nothing else. Loki and him were the only living beings in this wasteland.

Loki…

If Tony didn’t know that this was the same person who had been crouching in a cell only one minute ago, he wouldn’t believe it. His entire posture was different. Standing tall, a straight back and his sickly skin tone seemed to be fading away. He began to look healthier by the second, even the dirty stains on his tunic were vanishing, little rips were disappearing.

Loki was rubbing his left wrist and Tony could see the marks from the handcuffs.

Tony had done that… and the Avengers… and Shield. With Loki standing here and healing his own wounds it became blatantly clear that they were all dead. Except for Tony.

Eventually Loki was looking up, his poisonous eyes meeting Tony’s and he could still see the same hatred. It hadn’t vanished like Loki’s helplessness. That was good. Tony needed the bloodthirsty maniac. The one who was able to do things that Tony couldn’t.

“Look how far you’ve fallen…” Loki was pulling on his sleeves, covering his wrists. He was drawing out his words, clearly enjoying them.

“I guess that’s a matter of perspective.” Tony’s response was dry and a mad grin was splitting Loki’s face apart. “I would tend to agree…”

Loki made a step towards him and the clothes he was wearing were disappearing in green light, being seamlessly replaced by his battle armour. “First you throw me in a cage, then you let me out so I will kill your friends who helped putting me in said cage. A rather surprising turn of events.”

Tony was balling his hands into fists, not wanting to think about this too hard. “I told you everything that you need to know.”

“Right…” Loki was rolling the ‘r’, weighing his head from one side to the other, still smiling and he was so gleefully enjoying himself. “You want to see them burn.”

“Yes…”

“Are you sure?” After spending months with that muzzle on his face Loki had to be so ridiculously content to be able to talk. Tony didn’t care, he didn’t care about anything. “Once you unleash a storm…” Loki was twirling his fingers, strings of green magic dancing between them. “… it cannot be contained.”

Yes, exactly what Tony wanted. They had only been able to lock Loki away because of Tony. Because of his inventions. The runes were all nice and good, but without the collar they would have never been able to keep him.

“I don’t want it to be contained. I want you to do your worst.”

“My worst…” Loki was purring, stopping right in front of Tony, putting his height on display. “… is even beyond what you can imagine.”

“That sounds about just right.”

“I see…” A purr directly into Tony’s ear and a sudden, searing and unforgiving pain was ripping through him. It didn’t spread, but the intensity was overwhelming. Burning, slowly tearing his insides apart.

Why? What had just happened?

Loki put a hand on his shoulder, steadying him while putting his lips to his ear. His voice had turned into a sizzling sound that was a testimony to his hatred, but yet wasn’t devoid of glee. “Do you really think that opening the door after you’ve locked it would make everything undone? I am perfectly aware of who built the cage and my shackles… and of how you enjoyed using them.” Loki punctuated his words by twisting the knife in Tony’s guts and the pain threatened to bring Tony down to his knees, but Loki easily held him upright. “It’s so easy to say that you want them burn… after keeping me on a leash like a dog… then you suddenly need someone powerful enough to do what you can’t and I am supposed to do your biding? To be grateful because you let me out of the hole that you joyfully threw me in?”

Tony felt like he was falling over when Loki slowly started to pull the knife out. The pain was so harsh, becoming everything that Tony was aware of. Ripping him apart, burning his flesh from the inside. One of his hands came up to his stomach, feeling the blood rushing from the wound. Bleeding out…

“Argh…” When the knife was rammed between his ribs for a second time Tony wasn’t able to scream. A rattle was slipping past his lips and he was ready to fall over if it wasn’t for Loki’s long, unforgiving fingers digging into his arms.

Another betrayal, this one not unexpected but still a surprise…

“Did it ever occur to you that I hate you most? That whatever they did to make you turn on them… was nothing in comparison to what I am able to do? That your hatred compared to mine is absolutely… nothing?”

Loki’s words were so clear although Tony felt like all of his senses were already failing him. Bright spots were dancing in front of his eyes, his vision becoming blurry and unfocused.

So this was it. Tony was dying after all. At the hands of an enemy. Which was better than being stabbed in the back by the ones he loved… and who he had thought that they loved him too.

Tony would die out here in the cold and it didn’t matter, because Loki had a taste for blood. Tony’s wouldn’t be enough.

“What did you say just a moment ago in the dark cell that you’ve built for me?” Loki was once again twisting the blade and this time Tony could scream, although only for a second. Weak. Pathetic. “That it didn’t matter if I killed you or not, because you’d get your revenge anyway? You counted on my hatred for all of you… that I would seek them out and kill all of them after I’m done with you…. Tempting, I must admit, but I’ve thought of something so much crueler…”

Finally the blade was gone and Tony was gasping for breath, but air didn’t seem to want to enter his lungs and when it did… it was burning.

“I will let you lie here until you’ve bled out and the others will live. I will not touch a single one of them and you will die with that knowledge. They will live. Happily ever after… isn’t that what you call it? You knowing that causes you enough pain for me to feast on. It’s so sweet, I’ll gladly let them finish their tiny little lives. They don’t mean anything to me.”

“No, you can’t…”

The hands which were holding him upright were letting go and Tony helplessly dropped to the ground. Instantly the cold was creeping through his clothes, Tony brought his hands up to cover his wounds, but the blood kept flowing.

No, Loki couldn’t… They were going to get away with it. James with murdering his parents… Steve with keeping Tony in the dark, letting him fall into the arms of the man who had killed his parents… watching how Tony kissed the hands that ended the life of his mother… without saying a word…

“You can’t…” His voice was leaving him while Loki looked down at him, a sick and happy smile on his lips. At least he was honest. He wasn’t pretending to be anything else. “You repeatedly kicked a dog and then let it off the leash. Don’t be surprised it turned around to bite you.”

Then he walked away.

Tony was left behind, letting his hands drop to his side. What was the point in covering his wounds? Gaining a few useless seconds? At least he had tried…

So Tony was going to die like his parents. Alone. Murdered by a monster. Confused and betrayed. Were they having a good time right now? Laughing at him? That he had blindly fallen for the man that had ruined his life? That he hadn’t noticed although everybody else had known?

Had they even noticed yet that he was gone?

Was Steve still pretending to be sorry when he had never cared about Tony in the first place? Nobody of them cared… they had all watched and done nothing when Tony had found out the truth. Nobody had cared when Fury had decided that the murderer of his parents should be allowed to continue to live his life like nothing had ever happened.

They had all decided that it was okay for the Winter Soldier to kiss and touch Tony, to tell him he loved him…

Touch him with the same hands that had murdered Howard and Maria…

Tony felt a tear sliding down his cheek and realised that the pain wasn’t that bad anymore. Instead the cold was spreading across his body. A familiar feeling. He was dying.

It was minutes, maybe hours and then even the cold didn’t matter anymore. Tony didn’t feel his body anymore. It seemed gone and it wouldn’t have mattered if Loki hadn’t said…

They were getting away with it…

Tony was dying and they were getting away with it…

“I perfectly know that feeling.”

Blinking Tony tried to turn his head towards the voice, but he couldn’t. So Loki had come back to gloat.

“You’ve lasted longer than I thought… now they’re only minutes left… and although I’m really enjoying watching life slowly dropping out of you, believe me I do, I am still curious about one thing.”

A hand wrapped itself around Tony’s neck. He didn’t really feel it, but his head was turned to the side, so Loki had to have done that. Poisonous green eyes were staring at him. “If I made you an offer… healing you now, giving you back your life and letting you walk away… or you die here and now, but I promise I will make them suffer, let them burn… what would you choose?”

The word lay so heavy on his tongue, but Tony had to say it. The last and only thing that mattered. They couldn’t get away with it.

“…burn…”

A mouth right in front of him, forming a small smile. “One day you’ll have to actually tell me what they did to you…”

For a second Tony thought that Loki had stabbed him again, because there was pain. Pain. Tony was feeling something. Somebody’s hand on his stomach and the touch seemed to slip inside of him. Rushing through his veins, setting his entire body on fire with pain. Screaming in agony Tony sat up and suddenly it was all gone. Staring down at himself Tony touch his stomach to find his shirt still ripped and blood soaked, but the stab wounds were gone. “What…”

Loki smiled at him and now he didn’t look so mad anymore. “I don’t like to take unnecessary risks, Stark. Only one way to see how far a man is willing to go. Force him to go all the way. Now get up to your feet… we have work to do.”

No hand was held out to help him, so Tony struggled to get back up alone. Without another glance at him Loki walked away for the second time. Feeling a bit dizzy Tony stared at the pool of blood on the ground, thinking how easily Loki could have left him here. Without giving a damn. How easy it was for him spill blood and how he still might kill Tony when he felt like it…

They had brought this upon themselves.

Slowly Tony turned around to follow Loki, his steps getting steadier with every second.

 

 

 


End file.
